Economic Development

The concept of social enterprises – businesses and organizations that focus both on making a profit and a positive impact on people – isn’t new. A well-known example is Goodwill Industries International, which pioneered offering “a hand up, not a handout” in 1902. What’s new is the explosive growth of such operations, especially in central

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but new research examines what spawns the inventor. To spur innovation, it helps to have the right environment. And according to a comprehensive analysis by SIEPR Senior Fellow Raj Chetty and his colleagues, key factors that determine who becomes an inventor are coming up short for women, minorities

In a potato field near the Netherlands’ border with Belgium, Dutch farmer Jacob van den Borne is seated in the cabin of an immense harvester before an instrument panel worthy of the starship Enterprise. From his perch 10 feet above the ground, he’s monitoring two drones—a driverless tractor roaming the fields and a quadcopter in the air—that

An analysis of flood claims in several southeast Houston suburbs from 1999 to 2009 found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 100-year flood plain maps — the tool that U.S. officials use to determine both flood risk and insurance premiums — failed to capture 75 percent of flood damages from five serious floods, none of

Women entrepreneurs in developing countries are creating jobs, advancing gender equality, and helping build economies that work for everyone. Despite the vital role they play, women entrepreneurs often face major obstacles to financing and growing their businesses. These obstacles include limited options for loans and capital, financial services not tailored to their specific needs, and

The world of work is changing pretty rapidly, but one thing has been pretty consistent over the past few years: Workers are feeling optimistic about their prospects. The U.S. economy keeps adding jobs at a healthy clip and unemployment remains at pre-Recession lows, making this a jobseekers’ market. Here’s a look at the current state of the American workplace:

The obsession with measuring it is paralysing aid workers, there is no way to fully understand the impact of development. I would wager that, at any given moment, the majority of aid workers in the world are doing the exact same thing. We like to imagine aid workers out in the field, but that’s not

Microfinance was long been seen as the silver bullet for poverty alleviation. Over the years, we have learned that it has limitations, but it’s still one of the most powerful tools for financial inclusion. Now, financial technology, or fintech, promises us another revolution, one that could potentially reach millions more through nano-savings and credit delivered

“Chickens versus cash” might be the “best investment” for a very narrow question, but I argue it probably isn’t in the top 100 value for money research questions in development economics. In a recent article in Vox discussing Bill Gates’ commitment to chickens as a high impact poverty intervention Chris Blattman made the following statement

Earlier this year, Oxfam reported that the world’s eight richest people control roughly the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population. Around the same time, the World Economic Forum identified income inequality as the most challenging problem the world faces today. It is an issue that has been discussed for

Robots are taking human jobs. But Bill Gates believes that governments should tax companies’ use of them, as a way to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment. It’s a striking position from the world’s richest man and a self-described techno-optimist who co-founded Microsoft, one of the

Social responsibility has fortunately gone from the realm of corporate communications to business operations: It can no longer be faked. The best businesses are those that have built sustainability into the core of their business models and are using their people to create passion for their mission with consumers. AeroFarms, which grows nutritious leafy greens and

The "glass ceiling" is simply a label for the barrier that often keeps women from rising to the upper rungs of power across the U.S., regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The term was first used in the media in the late 1970s. Today the glass ceiling reflects the gaps in pay, retirement savings and

A short-term perspective means we forget how much progress has been made in reducing poverty and mortality rates — and in much else. A recent survey asked, “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?” In Sweden, 10 percent thought things are getting better,

Global internet inclusion could lift 500 million out of poverty and increase global economic activity by $6.7 trillion, according to a report. Connecting the 4.1 billion people currently outside the digital economy will be no easy feat however, as prohibitive costs and barriers from a range of factors would need to be overcome. The internet

In East Africa, native tour guides have formed an organization that is transforming the future of African wildlife and Kenyan safari travel. Maasailand is the heart of a billion-dollar tourism industry on which the Kenyan government relies and which directly employs over 100,000 people a year. The Maasai Mara Game Reserve alone hosts one-fifth of

Hopes that half of the world’s 48 least developed nations could emerge from extreme poverty by the end of the decade have been dashed after a UN body reported the weakest year of growth in more than 20 years. The UN conference on trade and development (Unctad) said plunging commodity prices had hit the group

When the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship was founded at Oxford’s Saïd Business School in 2003, it was one of the first business-school centers of its kind, leading the way in Europe. The students who received Skoll Scholarships for their social impact-focused track records were anomalies in classrooms filled with hopeful consultants, bankers, and accountants.

Earlier this year, the World Bank highlighted digital finance as having the capacity to contribute to reaching the goal of universal access to financial services by 2020. About 2-billion adults across the world do not have access to formal financial services. In sub-Saharan Africa, about 30% of the population has a bank account, a low figure

Most economists agree a ceiling on rents reduces the quantity and quality of housing available. Rent control and rent stabilization, intended to make housing affordable to low-income families, have been known to lead to many unintended consequences. Also, there is evidence of possible reductions in supply resulting from a price cap, as owners have little